It might become possible to build artificial minds with the capacity for experience. This raises a plethora of ethical issues, explored, among others, in the context of whole brain emulations (WBE). In this paper, I will take up the problem of vulnerability – given, for various reasons, less attention in the literature – that the conscious emulations will likely exhibit. Specifically, I will examine the role that vulnerability plays in generating ethical issues that may arise when dealing with WBEs. I will argue that concerns about vulnerability are more matters of institutional design than individual ethics, both when it comes to creating humanlike brain emulations, and when animal-like emulations are concerned. Consequently, the article contains reflection on some institutional measures that can be taken to protect the sims' interests. It concludes that an institutional framework more likely to succeed in this task is competitive and poly-centric, rather than monopolistic and centralized.

构建具有经验能力的人工思维可能成为可能。这引发了过多的伦理问题，在全脑仿真 (WBE) 的背景下进行了探索。在本文中，我将讨论有意识的模仿可能会表现出的脆弱性问题——由于各种原因，文献中关注较少。具体来说，我将研究脆弱性在产生与 WBE 打交道时可能出现的道德问题方面的作用。我将争辩说，无论是在创建类人大脑模拟方面，还是在涉及类动物模拟时，对脆弱性的担忧更多是制度设计的问题，而不是个人道德问题。因此，本文包含对一些可以用来保护模拟人生利益的制度措施的反思。